Wolfenstein - 1992 turned out to be a year for many controller players. Among just a few, the company ID Software released the game (or rather on the market), which knocked down the progress at the level of every fan now, in fact, shooters. We are talking, of course, about the immortal Wolfenstein 3D. They were until the first game we played full time! We played the role of agent Blazkowicz, and our task was to fight the Nazis. The game had a very primitive story, we just had to overcome the plans of the Germans who would make wunderwaffe (for miniguns) and plan to conquer the whole world. Despite the fact that throughout the game we were very concerned with the same possibility (the lack of the game world was not limited). A year after the premiere of the first Wolf, its sequel - Spear of Destiny, was released, but subsequent ID projects - Doom and the Master's Quake matched (and even surpassed) the pioneering Wolfenstein

Another breakthrough was announced by visits months ago. ID Software - User Theme to Roots - to release the Wolfenstein 3D sequel! The game was produced quite unusually. ID Software was developing only the care of itself and suggested the idea of creating new Wolf or producing as many as two studios. Gray Matter is responsible for the singleplayer mode, which has so far become famous as good with decent games (Kingpin). The network game was prepared by the newly created Nerve Software, a team composed of many popular personalities but not yet on its "account" with any title. It finally happened! The return to Wolfenstein Castle has finally seen the light of day! So let's take a closer look at it! at the beginning I will introduce you to the initial mode that will probably assume that it will stop, start now and this PP.

The plot of the new Wolf is much more interesting than its predecessor. The game itself starts out very interesting. Agent B.J. Blazkowicz, employed in an organization called O.S.A. (Office of Secret Actions - this is an office dealing with paranormal phenomena, such as the Allied X-Archives :-)), set off on another dangerous mission - to explore the vicinity of Wolfenstein Castle and explain the increased interest of the Germans in the nearby excavations. Unfortunately, shortly after starting his mission, he is captured. We start the game in prison. Fortunately, Blazkowicz manages to stun one of the soldiers. So we start at a similar moment as we did in the previous Wolfenstein. Our first task is to escape from the castle (fortunately we will return to it anyway!) And to get any information about the plans of the Germans

It turns out that they are interested in the grave where Heinrich I was buried. 1000 years ago he was imprisoned by one of the mages. In 1943, the Nazis begin work to resurrect the monster (we watch all of this in a well-crafted intro). In addition to stopping Heinrich, Blazkowicz will also prevent many other experiments, for example, we will have to prevent the creation of an army of Super Soldats, i.e. artificially improved soldiers, and obtain plans for weapons constructed by the Nazis. Despite the apparent complexity of the goals set for us, the action of the game has been arranged in a logical sense. As we go through the next stages, we discover newer and newer secrets, both by watching well-made videos (they were created on the game engine) and reading notes scattered around the world (we could see a similar solution in No One Lives Forever)

The game world has changed significantly since the times of the first Wolfenstein and none of you should be surprised :-) many years of gulf ...). My point is that the game itself takes place in completely different climates, although the initial stages may confuse you a bit. RTCW starts, as I said, in the title castle and indeed, the first chapter of the game is the good old Wolf but in a new version. Every step we notice similarities, there are still pictures on the walls with the image of Hitler, in the corridors we find "familiar" armor, in similar places very valuable secrets have also been hidden. The breakthrough comes with the beginning of the second chapter of the game, in which we will have to travel through villages, catacombs or towns destroyed by the war. Moreover, you will have to sneak in some places! Fortunately, only two levels of stealth action are required, so the real Wolf maniacs will get over it somehow.

The game is divided into seven very different chapters. During the game, we will visit, among others, a beautiful Bavarian village, go down to the dark and trapped catacombs, go to frosty but visually attractive Norway, we will deal with the sabotage of the occupied airport and dam, we will explore underground bases and laboratories and even take part in the assault on the town occupied by the Nazis ! The authors of the game tried to make it as attractive as possible. The locations evoke positive impressions at first glance. The levels are very large and if we additionally look for secrets, we will have to spend a lot of free time to complete each of them. Undoubtedly, an important attraction of the game is also the ability to destroy many elements of the environment (boards, chairs, tables, instrumentation, etc.), although it is not GeoMod (Red Faction), but as for the possibilities of the engine used, it is still great. It is a pity that for most of the game we move forward without any major problems (apart from fights with opponents, about which a bit later), from time to time we just have to press a gear, look for a key, reach a specific place / person or immobilize the previously blocked one. trap. It is also noticeable that in the last chapters there is definitely a lack of secret places, which may suggest an increased pace of work on the game (and it was released with quite a long delay ...).

It's time for a few words about your opponents. It is worth noting that we will not meet Nazis throughout the game, although they still play a dominant role. The first, traditional stages of the game are primarily a fight with inexperienced privates. They are neither too intelligent (though more on that in a moment) nor too heavily equipped, only some have sniper abilities (and equipment) that are not very "pleasant" for us. The scientists working on the services of Heinrich Himmler will also be a minor challenge for Agent Blazkowicz, they are usually very poorly trained and the only thing that can harm us is the alarm that will set the entire base on its feet ... With time, German commanders begin to appear, including In the event of a fight, the fight may look two ways: if they do not notice us, we will easily kill them even with a knife, but if we do not manage to eliminate them quickly enough, they can cause quite a stir (not even talking about the fact that then it will be much more difficult to kill them) ...).

Another group of Germans may be a serious problem for our agent. During the game, two elite Nazi troops appear. The first is a special team composed entirely of ... women. They fight really well, make numerous dodges, cooperate with each other to eliminate the player as quickly as possible. From the middle of the game, there are also specially trained paratroopers. Their greatest advantage is their weapon, it is a combination of a rapid-firing rifle and a sniper rifle. A group of paratroopers can make life much more difficult for even a well-trained player. The next challenge during the game are soldiers equipped with Venom rifles (this is one of the two Wunderwaffes that appear in RTCW), flamethrowers and rocket launchers. They are not too heavily armored, but without the ability to quickly and decisively strafe (i.e. dodge to the sides), they may turn out to be a more difficult nut to crack even than special units ... The most powerful Nazi units are Super Soldats, which may not appear in large numbers, but if such a meeting takes place, the fight will not be the easiest (or pleasant). So much for the Germans. In addition, during the game quite a lot of ... undead! We will encounter them for the first time during the exploration of the catacombs, and then while traversing secret German laboratories.

The easiest way to kill zombies is to aim for the head and after a few moments the delinquent returns back to the other world. However, it is much more difficult to fight zombie shamans who cast spells (they throw out souls that suck energy when they come into contact with the hero!), Individuals who spit fire and skeletons. The latter were equipped with a sword and a shield. The problem is ... they're hiding from our shots. You have to attack only when they reveal themselves, and they do it only during closer contact with agent Blazkowicz ... While exploring the laboratories, we will meet very mean and difficult to defeat Loper units. These are mutant units that jump over long distances and shock our hero (not only him but also everyone who stands in their way!) With electricity.

In addition to regular opponents, we will have to defeat the boss several times during the game. Unfortunately, the only effective tactic during such a fight turns out to be constantly shooting at the delinquent (from the strongest gun we currently have). Of course, you have to strafe as much as possible and look for scattered first aid kits, but we can already forget about some "ways" to arrange such an individual ...

One of the elements that force you to buy the described game in this case is the excellent, outstanding, wonderful artificial (almost human :-)) intelligence of the opponents. You can see it from the very beginning of the game. Even ordinary soldiers do not push straight into the barrel, but they jump behind the walls, run for reinforcements and even, prepare for a shock, throw grenades thrown at them !!! You won't see something like this in any other game. Of course, the more difficult it will be. For example, the fight with special forces is a special challenge, we have to watch out for our backs because the enemy is looking for the best possible method of killing the hero we lead, we should also be prepared for the fact that the Nazis are in the habit of using elements of the environment. Not only do they hide behind walls and other, larger objects, they can even hide behind a previously knocked down table and only conduct a very careful exchange of fire.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein stands out from all other FPP games in one more respect - the engine used. The game runs on the significantly improved Quake III: Arena engine. We could already see his power several times (e.g. while playing Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 or ST Voyager: Elite Force) but what the producers of the reviewed game showed exceeded my wildest expectations. At first glance, we notice the enormous detail of the objects, what's more, many of them also look nice up close (we do not have to "admire" any blurred textures) and the lion's share of these objects can also be destroyed (some of them are even thrown, e.g. chairs!) . The levels in the game are extensive and architecturally well thought out. In some situations you need to be smart and in others you need to be dexterous with your fingers. Our opponents, however, are probably the best, their models are very accurate, as are the shadows (after them, we can see the opponent standing behind the wall!). The animation of all the characters is also on par with the rest, we see details such as the movements of the lips during the conversation. Opponents are great at dodging and jumping, they fall a bit less after an accurate series from our weapons. The sound setting remains a bit overshadowed by the rest. It is true that the music is interesting and changes with what we see on the screen, but we forget about them too quickly. However, all kinds of sounds are much more interesting. Our opponents perfectly scream, groan (in this case, zombies and skeletons stand out especially!), Weapon shots, the effect of ricochet missiles or samples accompanying powerful explosions are perfectly rendered.

The production of the Gray Matter / Nerve Soft duo unfortunately did not avoid a few small mistakes. First of all, I have reservations about the poorly balanced difficulty level. For most of the game, it is definitely too easy (even when we have special units for opponents), and in turn, during fights with bosses, it is amazingly difficult. Even the first of them, a skeleton spitting fire (miniboss :-)), can be too much of a challenge for the average player (not enough space to fight, the need to constantly strafe). It is also a pity that the authors did not use the system of dividing the body into zones (which is the Soldier of Fortune) in the game. I am not too demanding, but if you see a situation where an ordinary person (without a helmet or any armor) keeps running after a shot in the head as if nothing happened, it is an exaggeration :-) And finally a few words about the RTCW requirements. The game, at least theoretically, should start on an average Pentium II. Unfortunately, to fully enjoy the game you need at least a Pentium III 500MHz and preferably a Duron or one of the newer Celerons. The game only fully develops its wings on the latest GeForce models, although if someone is not demanding in terms of graphics, you may be tempted to launch it even on the Riva TNT2 M64. It is also worth noting that the game "does not like" some graphics cards, in particular those from the VooDoo family (even the latest models). RTCW also needs approximately 700MB of free hard disk space. Those who want to experience multiplayer games must also remember that during online games the game requirements increase by several dozen percent, and in addition, for full happiness, an ISDN connection or something even better is needed.

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